Family.com

This subsection of the hugely successful Family.com site is like a women's magazine cover with each article title and lead tempting the reader. It is chock-full of all sorts of travel information: destination descriptions, readers' travel experiences and advice, holiday deals, health, and other practical help for those travelling with families. There are also links with Disney for Disney holidays and other information. The page is cheerful and clearly presented, but the mass of information on the site seems to slow down navigation. The short wait is worth the quality of the upbeat and straightforward writing by travel and health experts.


TRAVEL PLANNER


The travel planner presents a destination and holiday type (day trip, museum, outdoor, cruise, beach, theme park) menu which link to listings of holiday destinations, deals and related information. To get the most out of this page scroll down to the strangely placed 'type of vacation' choice at the bottom of the page. Here one finds 'advice' which leads to a big choice of help articles and links. Under the location choice, most of the listings are in the United States, but if you scroll down to the end of the US listings, you will find 'international', where there is a fantastic selection of information. There's loads on children in Paris, London, Canada and the Virgin Islands. This page also links to Disney's site.
The United States listings under Travel Planner are extensive. Some of the pastimes listed are truly American and fairly insightful for Europeans. Listings include corn mazes, Baseball Hall of Fame, local river trips, fairs , rodeos, science holidays, the Grand Canyon, National Parks, dog sledding, and skiing. There is also a vast amount of practical help.


ROAD-TESTED VACATIONS


This is also a super-duper page that can really help parents organise and plan family trips in the US. It contains visitor-written site rankings and descriptions of hundreds of holidays. The reviews are edited and put into a standard format by Family.com and include costs, coolest souvenir, how to get there, what the kids liked and what we liked, and what we didn't like. All readers are invited to share their experiences on the site and there are hundreds of parent-contributed pieces.


FAMILY CITY GUIDES


These guides let you choose a major US city and then presents a 'family-friendly city guide' site, where a smart and cheery page lists must-sees, city information, nearby getaways, family dining, and readers' ratings. This is excellent for preparing to visit a specific city and using it as a base for exploration.